Mexico is a big country with many diverse regions, each with their own traditions, culture, and food. This blog doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of a vague description like “Mexican food", but is rather just some thoughts about our experience in one small region of the country.
We ate some really good and cheap food in Mexico. Perhaps the best thing I ate were fish tacos. We had some fantastic ones at a place on the beach in Cancun. I know that sounds surprising, but we stayed in an area with mostly Mexicans. In Cozumel, we stayed in a little villa away from the touristy area and hotels, but close to local restaurants which had very good, and very cheap food. Full meals at these places are less than $4. I ate fish fajitas, slow cooked chicken that fell off the bone, and of course, tacos. We ate a lot of tacos. The best deal was the 7 peso (48 cents) tacos in Tulum. Their specialty was tacos al pastor, in which they shave the meat off a big rotating cylinder of pork just like they do for shwarma or a doner.
Cancun, Cozumel, and Playa del Carmen all have the large tourist trap, chain restaurants. I am sure you already know this, but stay away from those places. The food is waaaayy more expensive, and not any better. In Cozumel, we wanted to find a fun place to watch team USA basketball in the Olympics, and thought Margaritaville might be the place since we couldn’t find a “local” sports bar. We took one look at the menu and decided to just have a drink and eat elsewhere. The price of food was roughly seven times more expensive than at the local places. We couldn’t justify a $14 quesadilla even if Jimmy Buffet made it himself.
At our cooking class in Tulum, Jesslyn and I were the only students, and it was held in our teacher’s home. We made a few tortillas, a beef dish, and a few different salsas. As we cooked, we sipped mezcal and snacked on some grasshoppers. I know what you are thinking, but don’t worry, the mezcal didn’t have a worm. We were surprised at how simple, but delicious the food we cooked was. We were most excited to learn how to make tortillas. Jesslyn had never cared for corn tortillas, and if you have ever bought them from the store, you know that the texture is a bit grainy, and they tend to fall apart. The fresh ones are a different story. In Tulum, Jesslyn went down to the neighborhood tortilleria and when they asked “cuanto?”, she replied “cinco”, to indicate she wanted to five tortillas. Instead, she got five pesos (27 cents) worth, which was a tall stack of about 25. They were so good. For breakfast, we put scrambled eggs with cheese and chorizo on them. The next day, the quality of the tortillas had dropped off a bit, and even more the day after that. Now I know why the store bought ones are so bad. Our cooking teacher told us that they tried selling packaged corn tortillas in the grocery store in Mexico, but it didn't work. The local torillerias distribute their product in coolers to all the convenience stores in town each morning. So, you can get warm tortillas made that day at any 7-Eleven.
Tulum was my favorite spot we visited in Mexico. It has one of the nicest beaches I have been to anywhere in the world, and still has a lot of local charm. We stayed at an AirBnB apartment in town and pedaled bicycles 20 minutes to the beach each day. Tulum is also situated near many cenotes, including the two we dove in called “The Pit” and “Dos Ojos”. Cenotes (pronounced say-NO-tays) are natural sink holes which open up to the vast network of underground and underwater caves. Scuba diving in these caves is absolutely incredible. We have been very lucky to do a lot of fantastic dives on this trip, but we have never done anything like this. It was one of the most incredible experiences we had on the trip. These caves were above water at one (or more) points in earth’s history, and during that time many stalagmites, stalactites, and columns have formed. The streaks of light beaming down through the openings create spotlights in various shades of blue. We swam underground and surfaced in a cave full of bats (there is an opening in the ceiling they use to enter and leave).
As you can imagine, diving in a cave is pretty dangerous, and therefore requires a great deal of special training and equipment. However, we didn’t technically go into “caves”, we dove in “caverns”. What’s the difference? In a cavern, you can always see natural light, so if you have a problem, you know which way to swim to get to the surface. Since The Pit and Dos Ojos are popular dive sites, there are fixed ropes marking underwater the routes. As long as you stay with the guide and don’t leave the ropes, it is very safe. People have died in these places, but it was because they wandered away from the ropes into a cave, got disoriented and couldn’t find their way out. I didn’t take any pics underwater, but thank you to Dos Ojos Scuba for this one.
Divers at the Dos Ojos cenote. Credit: http://www.divedosojos.com
Stay tuned for a wrap up post!
- Jake